This is a resource for individuals who wish to engage in leadership development.

Much of the university material on leadership development focuses on the organization—what the human resource manager should do, the succession plan, the responsibilities of the CEO, etc.

But there's a vast number of people stuck in organizations without formal leadership development programs. When these individuals ask for leadership programs, they must overcome a long list of mind numing rationalizations such as, "There's no budget," "We don't have the time," and my favorite, "What's the ROI on leadership development?"

This is for those who wish to develop themselves as leaders, but lack organizational leadership development support. It's dedicated to the self-starter, the self-disciplined, the self-motivated, and the self-reliant.

 

Elizabeth 1, Queen of England

Primary Ignorance. The most obvious form of ignorance is simply not understanding or not knowing. We don't know; but we realize we dont' know we don't know. But there are two more suble forms of ignorance.
 
Partial Ignorance. The form involves a false assumption—that one understands something throughly when one does not. It's a common form of ignorance when it comes to leadership. Just because you took a course once (of which 90% is now forgotten), read two books years ago, or attended a 3-day executive seminar does not mean you understand leadership. 

The reality is, like in most fields of study, developing leadership expertise requires years of fairly consistent study and effort. Unfortunately, one sees this form of ignorance in some MBAs -- they think know, but they don't know. And because they don't know, their careers careen to a halt when a lack of people skills prevent further advancement.  
 
Delusion. The final form of ignorance is more subtle still, what the psychologists call delusion. According to Wordnet lexical database at Princeton, it is, "An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary."

To site one example, here is a fairly common leadership question followed by a typically wrong answer. The question goes, "What is better, to be respected or liked?" The answer commonly heard is, "To be respected." However, psychological research has demonstrated the real answer is, "Its better to be liked."

Professional and social relationships are based on trust. And we don't trust people we don't like. In fact, we don't even respect someone we don't like. 

Delusions are especially insidious when the false belief becomes part of an political or business ideology accepted as fact by millions. For example, the belief in self-regulating financial markets is one type of economic ideology that contributed to the financial crisis.

A failure to take operational control; 
Mental rigidity preventing adaptation of new ideas and threatening innovation; 
An inability to handle the stress, manifesting itself as a lack of emotional stability; and 
A failure to communicate in a way that inspires hope and trust. 

According to this 2008 study, seventy-five (75) percent of executives surveyed for the Global Leadership Forecast identified improving or leveraging leadership talent as a top business priority from among a list of 14 challenges. However, only 41% of managers surveyed were satisfied with their organizations leadership development programs, a decline of 12 percentage points in only two years. 
This suggests that in many organizations, you can expect little in the way of help to develop your leadership ability. Even for those who are on track for critical overseas assignments find that they are mostly on their own. This same report mentioned that only 29% of MNCs had processes in place for cross-border leadership.

For those looking at working globally, another 2008 study by DDI called Growing Global Executive Talent, offers a number of important insights into the types of leadership skills one should develop. Interestingly enough, the top two priorities were team motivation and cultural adaptability, while the least important were technical knowledge and making the numbers.

1. Ability to motivate a team — 34.7%
2. Works well across cultures — 33.5%
3. Developing Talent — 25.7
4. Can make tough decisions — 23.8%
5. Ability to create a strategy — 23.1%
6. Creativity or innovation — 22.8%
7. Ability to execute a strategy — 21.6%
8. Interpersonal Skills — 21.1%
9. Integrity or ethics — 16%
10. Technical Expertise — 11.2%
11. Bring in the Numbers — 10.2%

Business Week in September 2007, examined what traits or skills 95 great companies wanted to see in college graduates. This is what was listed:

 Desirable Traits or Skills     Number of Companies
        College Major                        22
        Leadership Skills                   19
        Analytical Skills                    18
        Communication Skills            23
        GPA                                     5
        Misc.                                    8

So while one's major (or technical skill) is still extremely important, a large number of the sample corporations also want new hires to have demonstrated leadership skills.

Unfortunately, many new hires lack even basic leadership and human relation skills. According to a September 2005 study by Leadership IQ, "46% of newly hired employees will fail within 18 months, while only 19% will achieve unequivocal success." Interestingly, it was not the technical skills which gave companies problems, it was basic human relations abilities, the kind associated with basic leadership skills. In this case, the top five problems were:

• Coachability (26%): In this case, the ability to accept negative feedback.
• Emotional Intelligence (23%): EQ typically includes self-awareness, self-regulation, achievement motivation, human relations and empathy.
• Motivation (17%): The drive to excel or do the job well. Sometimes known as conscientiousness.
• Temperament (15%): Here, one should posses both attitude and personality traits that match job requirements. 
• Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the job.

Experience is supposed to be the great teacher. It's always rather amusing to see a resume where someone talks about having “ten, fifteen or twenty years of experience.” However, experience by itself does little to enhance understanding of what's needed for leadership development.

As anyone who has traveled overseas knows, experiencing Chinese characters doesn't mean you understand them. Just because one experiences fire, doesn't mean one can make it, experiencing water doesn't mean one can swim, listening to music doesn't mean one can be a musician, and seeing a leader in action doesn't mean one can act like one.

If you study mathematics, you become a historian;
If you study history, you become a historian;
If you study swimming, you drown.
— Anonymous 

Sometimes, though, one can learn from experience as the following story following story relates:

By this time I had started playing the tenor sax. I was even asked to play first trumpet inn the school band. But I gave up music in order to go into politics. I wanted to be president of my class in seventh and eight grade--and I was. In ninth grade I ran for president of the whole school. Jimmy Leiby, my closest friend, was a genius. He became my campaign manager, and created a real political machine. I won the election by a landslide and it went to my head. To use the vernacular of the day, I really thought I was hot shit. But once I was elected, I lost touch with my constituency. I thought I was a cut above the other kid, and I stated acting like a snob. I hadn't learned what I know now--the ability to communicate is everything. As a result, I lost the election in the second semester. It was a terrible blow. I had given up music to be in the student council, and now my political career had come to a halt because I forgot to shake hands and be friendly. It was an important lesson about leadership.
From Iacocca: An Autobiography. Toronto: Bantam Books. Page 18.

To sum up, for the vast majority of people, experience teaches us little and is not that helpful as a tool for leadership development.

There is an old saying which goes, “Those who can, do. Those who can't do, manage. Those who can't mange, teach. Those who can't teach, consult.”

Having depth in the knowledge base is extremely important. While reading and taking classes is an extremely important aspect of learning, we are only typically learning knowledge. And knowledge is not always enough.

As many of us have discovered, college does wonders to improve both self-discipline and self-motivation; but does little to develop tangible job, such as leadership development or human relations. 

This fundamental truth has been known for a long time, but it must be relearned by each generation. According to Peter Senge, the author of The Fifth Discipline, “The expression for learning in Chinese is made up of two symbols: One stands for studying, the other for practicing constantly. So, you cannot think of learning without practicing constantly.” According to Robbins (1989) in his book Training In Interpersonal Skills:

Today's business graduates have an abundance of technical knowledge. They can do linear programming, calculate a discounted rate of return, develop a sophisticated marketing plan, and crunch numbers on a computer spreadsheet. They're technically solid, but most lack the leadership development ability necessary to develop people. If there is an area where business schools need to improve, it's in leadership development.

Our preferred method for leadership development combines both theory with experience; concept and application; concepts with behavior. The aim is to use theory in the real world and then learn from experience by evaluating what went right and what could go better. When done properly, this is an extremely powerful learning mechanism.

One of the CEO's in Louis Arthur's book, Tycoons put it this way, “This is mental set that's been present for me all those years--the experience of learning early that if something went wrong, you should examine what you have done wrong before looking outside yourself. . . The lesson of being compelled to examine my own actions has been of tremendous value to me through the years.”

By combining theory, practice and application, one has the best opportunity for leadership development as the following story relates.

A man was struggling to cut down enough trees to build a fence. An old farmer came by, watched for a while, then quietly said, “Saw's kind of dull, isn't it?”
“I reckon,” said the fence builder.
“Hadn't ya better sharpen it?”
“Maybe later. I can't stop now-I got all these trees to cut down.”

Moral of the Story: If you take time to sharpen your leadership development ability, the task will not be so hard. From MacKenzie (1990). The Time Trap. New York: AMACOM, pg. 11

Studies have shown that genetically identical twins raised in completely different environments, still show similar behavior patterns. While there does not seem to be a specific gene for leadership or its development, it can be said that certain genes have a direct impact on leadership development such as intelligence. While one doesn't need to be genius to for the development of leadership, one can't be in the special needs category either. 

Even though cynics might conclude that television is the great brainwasher of the young, the strongest leadership development factor molding children is still the family. Prior to the start of school, children learn a great deal through observation and by modeling those around them. Future leaders may have been fortunate while young to have a leadership development role model in a brother, sister, parent, mother, father, aunt or grandparent.

While there is disagreement in the leadership development theories and studies on whether certain leadership traits are always present in the expression of leadership, we know that possessing certain traits can definitely help. This raises on interesting question, is it possible for a person to change certain personality traits? One might answer that question with a bit of humor. 

In some cases, the position inside an organization forces someone to "grow into it." We have seen this happen many times in human history when an individual with the title of King or Queen, also received the label Great beside their name. Katherine, Frederick, Alexander, Constantine and others used their birth right as a starting point to leadership greatness.

In other cases, managers tend to fall into the trap of over using the authority associated a position to get results. There is nothing wrong with using authority. However, over reliance on it tends to inhibit leadership development.

It's been said that certain leader development functions like a battery—all that potential just waiting for the right conditions for the current to flow. Some have the potential to lead, but the conditions were never right to take charge, for them to emerge as a leader.

In corporate settings, this occurs when potential leaders are allowed to emerge to take charge of project teams for example. An emergent leaders generally does well since that person does not have to deal with legitimacy issues that so often bedevil team leaders appointed by management.

One of the most subtle, powerful brakes (or accelerators) of leader development is what one believes. There is no stronger prison than the one we build within our own minds. For many, the mental prison consists of a small number of core beliefs that limit accomplishment. 

If you ask a group of people, how many are managers, almost everyone will raise their hand, even if they do not have a business degree. If you ask the same group how many are leaders, few will raise their hand. Until such beliefs are erased, the person is 100% correct—they can never, will never lead.

While all the other leadership development factors are important, this one clearly dominates the list. It implies that leadership is a skill, and like all leadership development, it can be learned.

Raw experience by itself, is rarely enough to learn leadership development. If experience was all one needed, you could become a marital arts expert by watching Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee movies. 

Finally, effort and underlying motivation play an incredibly important role in mastering leadership development specialties such as transformational leadership. One has to be willing to put in the hours required to both seek out a sound leadership development theory and then practice, practice and practice.

Not all companies are into developing the leadership potential of managers. Here are twenty-five that are put time and money into this task. For detailed research also consult companies for leaders. For detailed results take a look at the 2007 leadership study.

100 Years of Research on Leadership Development

This short Psychology Today article summarizes the leadership literature in five areas: Are leaders born or made? At what age do leaders develop? Does leadership training work? Are their common elements leaders share? And finally, Is leadership situation specific?

This site contains a large number of articles on leadership development with a special focus on transformational leadership.